The_Overlooked_Virus

The Overlooked Virus Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States, yet it remains one of the least discussed. Junior and Senior High Schools barely, if at all, discuss HPV in sex education classes. The average parent does not understand HPV, therefore the knowledge is not relayed to the child. By the time physicians are consulted, it is often too late. Education on the wide spread and rapidly growing virus has much to offer safe sex and sex prevention campaigns. One possibility as to why HPV education has been neglected could be related to the fact that available information is often contradictory, outside of HPV having the ability to be a silent infection. Any individual who is currently or has in the past been sexually active may have been exposed to the virus. Since entering college in 1994, I have met five women and one man who knew they had HPV, only because genital warts had appeared. Each individual’s doctor explained that HPV was a STD that could not be eliminated, because it was a virus and could remain latent for a very long time. hpv, cancer, virus, warts, percent, women, cdc, cervical, through, prevention, genital, education, sex, infection, been, skin, since, infections, about, types, transmitted, screening, public, need, know, told, testing, should, sexual, pap, one, men, understand, time, studies